TV or not TV

Thursday 21st of March 2013 - 10:40:55 PM

The folks at The App Entrepreneur posed an interesting article about whether apps for your TV will be growth area in the future. TAE is somewhat skeptic, pointing to OS challenges and the like. They also argue that the format may not be great for apps:

TV apps that would probably work would be gaming ones – instead of a laptop or mobile screen the user will now have a bigger screen, even in HD which would make gamers happy. They could also work in the communications category where instead of the whole family trying to squeeze behind a laptop camera on a Skype video call, there’s more space and better visuals. But does this however mean future TVs will have cameras on them?

Now this is where we disagree. Yes, browsing Facebook on a giant screen may or may not be your cup of tea, nor playing Angry Birds in 50 inch screen (although at CodeNgo we are geeky enough to fantasize about this). The real power of TV apps comes when they interact with the programming. This is of course possible today on tablets, where really cool interactive apps have been developed to enhance the TV viewing experience.

Other companies like ConnecTV are really focusing on the social aspect of watching, which lends itself perfectly to a bigger screen, as you would not have to shift your viewing focus to the tablet from the larger screen. Check out this video to learn more about these guys:

[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkYPcqLWoMU’]

We think TV apps will come, and it will be huge. What the tipping point will be is hard to predict, as obviously you need a large installed base (smart TVs) with a well functioning eco-system for developers. We know for a fact there are app stores that are quite serious about this. The beauty of this of course is that CodeNgo stands ready to support these kind of apps too – continuing to be your one stop shop for self publishing.